What Are the Southern Ivies? Is there a Southern Ivy League?
What’s Covered:
- Does the Southern Ivy League Exist?
- What Are Some Potential “Southern Ivies”?
- What Are Your Chances of Acceptance?
The Ivy League is a term commonly used for some of the most prestigious institutions in the U.S. All the Ivies are located in the northeastern part of the country; this is because the Ivy League was originally formed as an athletic league that made it easy for eight of the oldest schools in the U.S. to play sports against one another.
So, is there a Southern Ivy League then? If so, which schools are considered Southern Ivies? Read on to find out.
Does the Southern Ivy League Exist?
While there is no one-to-one comparison for the Ivy League in the southern U.S., the South is home to a handful of institutions that rival their northern counterparts in prestige, academic excellence, and challenging admissions.
Some of the schools commonly considered “Southern Ivies” are actually known as “Public Ivies”—a term coined by Richard Moll in 1985 in his book, Public Ivies: A Guide to America’s Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universities, to describe a collection of schools that offer an outstanding educational experience at a fraction of the price of the actual Ivy League.
What Are Some Potential “Southern Ivies”?
There is no official list of Southern Ivy League schools, but below you’ll find 15 of the South’s finest institutions. These schools offer the academics, opportunities, challenges, and history of the original eight Ivies—some even predate them—while also offering a slice of southern hospitality and eliminating the harsh winters of the Northeast.
|
School |
State |
Undergraduate Enrollment |
Acceptance Rate |
|
VA |
7,063 |
34% |
|
|
NC |
1,869 |
13% |
|
|
NC |
6,391 |
7% |
|
|
GA |
7,407 |
10% |
|
|
GA |
20,592 |
14% |
|
|
TX |
4,789 |
8% |
|
|
LA |
7,283 |
14% |
|
|
FL |
36,573 |
24% |
|
|
NC |
21,075 |
15% |
|
|
VA |
3,055 |
22% |
|
|
TX |
43,165 |
27% |
|
|
VA |
17,901 |
17% |
|
|
TN |
7,221 |
6% |
|
|
NC |
5,490 |
22% |
|
|
VA |
1,866 |
14% |
1. College of William & Mary | William & Mary
Location: Williamsburg, VA
CollegeVine Ranking: 64
Acceptance Rate: 34%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 7,063
Many describe the College of William and Mary as an “Ivy League-quality education at state-school prices.” The college has the distinction of being the second-oldest college in the U.S.; it was founded in 1693 and only Harvard is older. History is palpable at the school, which is adjacent to Colonial Williamsburg—a restored colonial area.
The College of William and Mary is a small school in a small town, resulting in a familiar, tight-knit campus. It’s home to more than 475 clubs and organizations and staying busy is part of its culture.
Learn more about William & Mary and see your chances of acceptance.
2. Davidson College
Location: Davidson, NC
CollegeVine Ranking: 41
Acceptance Rate: 13%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 1,869
Davidson’s honor code differentiates it from other colleges and universities. More than just words, the honor code encapsulates the Davidson experience, which includes take-home tests and self-proctored final exams. Beyond the classroom, the honor code means that if you lose your wallet on Davidson’s campus, there’s a good chance someone will make an effort to return it to you.
The honor code creates a bond between students, faculty, and staff. That bond is only strengthened by the school’s small class sizes (16 students on average). Need another reason to love Davidson? The college was the first liberal arts school to eliminate loans in financial aid packages. The Davidson Trust meets 100% of the calculated financial need of accepted students through a combination of grants and campus employment.
Learn more about Davidson and see your chances of acceptance.
3. Duke University
Location: Durham, NC
CollegeVine Ranking: 6
Acceptance Rate: 7%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 6,391
Duke’s roots trace back to 1838 as a subscription school for the Methodist and Quaker families in rural Randolph County. Over the past 180+ years, the university has evolved quite a bit. Today, Duke is a leader in liberal arts education. A Duke education instills “habits of mind” in students to help develop skills such as critical thinking and creative problem solving, and to foster an appetite for discovery that helps students succeed at Duke and in life.
A core value at Duke is undergraduate research (research opportunities are offered to students in all majors). This provides students with an excellent opportunity to gain experience and helps bolster the resumes of those hoping for a job within the research triangle—the name given to the highly educated area encompassing three North Carolina cities (Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill).
Learn more about Duke and see your chances of acceptance.
4. Emory University
Location: Atlanta, GA
CollegeVine Ranking: 36
Acceptance Rate: 10%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 7,407
Emory’s gorgeous main campus is located in Atlanta, the capital of Georgia. A progressive, vibrant, and global city (it hosted the Olympics in 1996), Atlanta offers a multitude of entertainment, shopping, and culinary distractions from the classroom, including one of the world’s largest aquariums, housing more than 100,000 sea creatures. Atlanta is also home to a number of Fortune 1000 companies, an enticing prospect for students seeking internships or careers after graduation.
Emory’s campus provides everything a student needs to succeed, from small class sizes (the average is 17 students) to an extensive (175,000+ person) worldwide alumni network. Undergraduates studying liberal arts at Emory also have the option of spending their first two years at the university’s Oxford, Georgia, campus, which provides a small-town, close-knit setting just 36 miles from downtown Atlanta.
Learn more about Emory and see your chances of acceptance.
5. Georgia Institute of Technology | Georgia Tech
Location: Atlanta, GA
CollegeVine Ranking: 68
Acceptance Rate: 14%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 20,592
Georgia Tech is one of the best public institutions in the U.S. and has a reputation for its excellent engineering and computer science programs. The school opened its doors in 1884 as an all-male trade school; women weren’t admitted until 1952. In 1961, Georgia Tech became the first university in the Deep South to admit African-American students without a court order.
Georgia Tech’s campus is home to a variety of interesting historical sites. For example, the surrender of Atlanta during the Civil War occurred on what is today the school’s southwest border, and its Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field is the oldest on-campus stadium in NCAA Division I-A. Another interesting fact about Georgia Tech’s campus is that it was the site of the Olympic athlete village during the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Learn more about Georgia Tech and see your chances of acceptance.
6. Rice University
Location: Houston, TX
CollegeVine Ranking: 16
Acceptance Rate: 8%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 4,789
Rice’s combination of being a medium-sized school in a big city (Houston is the nation’s fourth-largest city) allows students to enjoy the familiarity of a smaller community on campus while also experiencing big city life. Rice’s campus is tight-knit; there are no fraternities or sororities, and the university’s residential system randomly assigns students to one of its 11 colleges, where they maintain membership through their undergraduate years, which creates a family-like atmosphere.
Rice is located minutes away from Houston’s downtown and in the heart of its museum district. Despite Houston’s size, the city itself can feel suburban—it’s much more spread out than cities like New York, Chicago, and Boston.
Learn more about Rice and see your chances of acceptance.
7. Tulane University
Location: New Orleans, LA
CollegeVine Ranking: 53
Acceptance Rate: 14%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 7,283
Tulane’s New Orleans location offers students the opportunity to experience one of the most culturally vibrant cities in the nation. From festivals to music to cuisine, it provides students with numerous opportunities outside the classroom. It may also contribute to Tulane’s reputation as a party school.
Tulane has earned a strong reputation for research and is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a university with “very high research activity.” A unique aspect of a Tulane education is that community service is central to its core curriculum—it’s required for graduation.
Learn more about Tulane and see your chances of acceptance.
8. University of Florida
Location: Gainesville, FL
CollegeVine Ranking: 67
Acceptance Rate: 24%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 36,573
This university is big: it’s home to one of the largest student bodies in the nation, spans over 2,000 acres, and includes more than 900 buildings. Its football stadium can hold an incredible 88,548 fans! That’s not all that’s large at the university—in 2022 it surpassed $1 billion in research funding.
University of Florida alumni are extremely accomplished, particularly in athletics. Notable alumni include three Heisman Trophy winners (Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel, and Tim Tebow), NFL Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith, and ex-NBA All-Star Joakim Noah. Alumni do equally well off the field; 10 Florida governors attended the university.
Learn more about the University of Florida and see your chances of acceptance.
9. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | UNC
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
CollegeVine Ranking: 43
Acceptance Rate: 15%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 21,075
UNC is known for its academics, post-graduation employment opportunities, and athletics. UNC is one of the 15 schools commonly grouped together and called “Public Ivies” and is located in the research triangle—together with cross-town rival Duke—which is home to more than 300 companies.
UNC has a reputation for exceptional athletics; the Tar Heels have won 52 NCAA team championship titles, including six titles for the men’s basketball team and a staggering 23 titles for the women’s soccer team.
Offering a great education for more than two centuries, UNC was the first public university in the U.S. and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century. It admitted its first class in 1795.
Learn more about UNC and see your chances of acceptance.
10. University of Richmond
Location: Richmond, VA
CollegeVine Ranking: 57
Acceptance Rate: 22%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 3,055
Students from across the nation and globe are attracted to the University of Richmond’s campus—45 states and almost 90 countries are represented by undergraduates. Part of the appeal is the university’s small classes (the average undergraduate class size is 16) and low student-to-faculty ratio (8:1).
Another appealing quality of the university is its “Richmond Guarantee,” under which every undergraduate student is eligible to receive a fellowship of up to $5,000 for an unpaid or underpaid summer internship or faculty-mentored research project. In 2024, the University of Richmond awarded $2 million in fellowships, with the average fellow receiving $4,337. Fellows interned in 29 states and 23 countries.
Learn more about the University of Richmond and see your chances of acceptance.
11. University of Texas at Austin | UT Austin
Location: Austin, TX
CollegeVine Ranking: 68
Acceptance Rate: 27%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 43,165
UT Austin lives up to the saying everything is bigger in Texas—with more than 40,000 undergraduates, the school is one of the biggest colleges in the country. UT Austin offers more than 170 undergraduate fields of study, 12,000 courses, and 400 study-abroad programs. It’s no wonder the university attracts students from all 50 states and 130+ countries.
On campus, students are provided with an enormous amount of resources. UT Austin is home to 17 libraries containing more than 10 million volumes. When students can break away from their studies, they’ll find over 1,000 student organizations catering to all manner of interests and hobbies.
Learn more about UT Austin and see your chances of acceptance.
12. University of Virginia | UVA
Location: Charlottesville, VA
CollegeVine Ranking: 49
Acceptance Rate: 17%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 17,901
Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, UVA has a 200-year tradition of attracting intellectually curious students from not only Virginia but from across the U.S. and the globe. In fact, Jefferson considered the founding of the university as one of his greatest achievements—he recruited the faculty, planned the curriculum, and designed the iconic Rotunda.
Charlottesville is an idyllic college town, big enough to provide an interesting diversion from your studies, but not so big as to be a distraction. A unique attribute of UVA is that there are no “freshmen” or “seniors” on campus; rather, students are called first-years through fourth-years because Jefferson believed no one could be a senior in their education. The campus isn’t even called a campus—it’s called the “grounds.”
Learn more about UVA and see your chances of acceptance.
13. Vanderbilt University
Location: Nashville, TN
CollegeVine Ranking: 18
Acceptance Rate: 6%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 7,221
There’s a lot to love about Vanderbilt, including top-notch academics, a world-class city, and its gorgeous campus. In the classroom, Vanderbilt students rave about the low teacher-to-student ratio (7:1) and flexibility on the academic path (if you don’t like your major, you can easily change it). Another quality to love about Vanderbilt is that it’s a no-loan school, which means the university will meet 100% of every student’s demonstrated financial need without loans.
The city of Nashville provides students with nearly unlimited entertainment opportunities (it’s the Music City, after all) and restaurants galore. Of course, it’s tough to pry yourself away from Vanderbilt’s stunning campus—it’s a National Arboretum containing about 190 species of trees and shrubs.
Learn more about Vanderbilt and see your chances of acceptance.
14. Wake Forest University
Location: Winston-Salem, NC
CollegeVine Ranking: 44
Acceptance Rate: 22%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 5,490
Wake Forest has long been on the cutting edge—it was the first top 30 national university to eliminate standardized test requirements in the undergraduate admissions process; it also recently opened Wake Downtown, its 151,000-square-foot hub of programming dedicated to engineering and biomedical sciences.
Wake Forest maintains a close-knit, welcoming, and friendly campus. For example, 1,600 undergraduates participated in 2024’s Wake ‘N Shake—the school’s annual 12-hour dance marathon benefiting cancer research—raising more than $310,000. Since 2005, the event has raised over $3.5 million in funds.
Undergraduates at Wake Forest are required to live on campus for their first six semesters, and more than three-quarters of its undergraduate population lives on campus.
Learn more about Wake Forest and see your chances of acceptance.
15. Washington and Lee University
Location: Lexington, VA
CollegeVine Ranking: 33
Acceptance Rate: 14%
Undergraduate Enrollment: 1,866
Washington and Lee University earns high marks from more than just CollegeVine—it commonly tops lists of the country’s best small colleges and best liberal arts colleges. Washington and Lee University makes a no-loan commitment to its students; that is, the university will meet 100% of demonstrated need with federal, institutional, and state grants, along with student employment, none of which requires repayment.
Washington and Lee follows a unique three-term academic calendar that consists of two 13-week terms, followed by an immersive 4-week spring term. This offers students the chance to have a transformative learning experience, such as studying the science of cooking in Italy or learning about geology while rafting in the Grand Canyon.
Learn more about Washington and Lee and see your chances of acceptance.
What Are Your Chances of Acceptance?
Like their counterparts in the Northeast, the Southern Ivies are extremely selective. That said, your odds of admission into one of these stellar schools depend on the strength of your profile. CollegeVine can help you better understand your chances of acceptance. Our free chancing engine uses data points like grades, test scores, and extracurricular activities to estimate your odds of getting into the Southern Ivies, along with hundreds of other colleges across the country, helping you build an informed college list and see how you stack up against other applicants.
